1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical-electrical transceiver module for connecting an optical-electrical composite cable incorporating an optical fiber and an electric wire to external electrical equipment.
2. Description of Related Art
In order to meet increase in the amount of information with the rapid popularization of the Internet and multimedia, the development has been pursued in optical interconnection technologies for using optical signals in signal transmission between devices of processors. People expect smaller size and cost of optical-electrical transceiver modules.
Some conventional optical-electrical transceiver modules are constructed, for example, so that optical elements are horizontally arranged on a line at an end of a connector, and optical fibers are connected to these optical elements and each electrical signal is outputted from each optical element. (Refer to JP-A-2003-149512, for example.)
Incidentally, even in the case of using an optical interconnection, since not only transmissions of optical signals with optical fibers but also transmissions of electrical low-speed signals, power supply, grounding, and the like with electric wires are used, an optical-electrical composite cable incorporating an electric wire (including wires) and an optical fiber (including fibers) is used generally.
A conventional procedure example for connecting such an optical-electrical composite cable to external electrical equipment has been taken as illustrated in FIG. 5. That is, a glass epoxy plate 52 as a base with an electric wiring formed on the surface thereof is prepared; an optical fiber 54 of an optical-electrical composite cable 58 is placed so that one end of the optical fiber 54 is opposed to an optical element 53 mounted on the glass epoxy plate 52. At the same time, an electric wire 55 of the optical-electrical composite cable 58 is electrically connected to an input terminal Pi of the electric wiring. Then a connector 57 is electrically connected to output terminals Po of the glass epoxy plate 53 through cables 56.
Optical signals from the optical fiber 54 are converted to electrical signals through the optical element as an opto-electric conversion device 53 (or the optical element 53 and a driver) and outputted to the connector 57 through the cables 56 electrically connected to the output terminals Po. Similarly, electrical signals from the electric wire 55 inputted to the input terminal Pi are outputted to the connector 57 through the cables 56 electrically connected to the output terminals Po.
In the optical-electrical transceiver module 51, when the connector 57 is electrically connected to external the electrical equipment, the optical-electrical composite cable 58 is thereby connected to the external electrical equipment. In the description with reference to FIG. 5, a case where one optical fiber 54 and one electric wire 55 are provided has been taken as an example for the simplification of the drawing. However, the foregoing also applies to cases where multiple optical fibers 54 and electric wires 55 are provided.
According to the conventional optical-electrical transceiver module 51, the glass epoxy plate 52 and the connector 57 are formed separately from each other and it is required to connect the output terminals Po formed on the glass epoxy plate 52 and the connector 57 with each other through the cables 56. Therefore, when the optical-electrical transceiver module 51 is packaged, the overall size thereof may be increased. In addition, when the optical fibers 54 and the electric wire 55 are increased in number, the size of the glass epoxy plate 52 may be increased.
Furthermore, according to the structure of the optical-electrical transceiver module 51 in which the output terminals Po formed on the glass epoxy plate 52 and the connector 57 are electrically connected with each other through the cables 56, the more optical fiber 54 and the electric wire 55 in number, the more wiring is complicated and further it is required to use the glass epoxy plate 52 with an electric wiring formed thereon. Therefore, the structure may make an increase in cost.